QUESTION: Ms. Reno, with U.N. and NATO forces
engaged overseas, I guess the natural question to ask is
whether we have increased security here at home?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We are taking
responsible precautions.

QUESTION: Has there been some increase of
the --

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment on
what is being done.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, the Chairman of Microsoft,
Bill Gates, has said publicly that his company has sent the
Justice Department a settlement proposal, picking up on the
judge's advice to the parties before the recess, that they use
their time wisely. Has the Justice Department received a
settlement offer from Microsoft?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I think the best thing
to do is to let the lawyers who are directly involved comment.

QUESTION: So, if we ask the Antitrust
Division, will they say something?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I do not know whether
they will say something, but --

QUESTION: Would you like them to?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: But Myron will be happy
to work with you.

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: Getting back to Kosovo for a minute.
Have you been involved at all in any of the discussions about
the legality of the operation?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We were consulted, and
we advised the National Security Council that what the
President proposed to do was constitutionally and otherwise
lawfully authorized.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, have there been any
specific terrorist threats leveled in the U.S. or against our
embassies in Europe since this campaign has started?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment.
Whether or not there were such threats, I think the State
Department should take appropriate steps in that regard, and
would refer any matter like that to the State Department. And
with respect to any other threats, that would be best handled
through the FBI.

QUESTION: Are concerns running at a heightened
level now because of --

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: Again, any comments
that should be made, should be made through the FBI.

QUESTION: Picking up on Beverley's questions
about the legality, did the Justice Department look at all at
the question of whether NATO needs to have the U.N. sign off
on NATO operations? Did you look at any of those sorts of
questions?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We looked at what the
President of the United States was constitutionally authorized
to do.

QUESTION: Who handled that in the department?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: The Office of Legal
Counsel.

QUESTION: Is it something on paper that you
all sent over there?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We were consulted.

QUESTION: Yesterday's ruling in Britain about
Mr. Pinochet, did that have any impact on your review of the
situation with regard to him in this country?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We are looking at all
of the issues and trying to understand what that ruling was.
And then we will make an appropriate determination.

QUESTION: Can you be more specific about what
your review is focused on, whether it's the facts of the law
or both?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: What we want to do is
look at the determination by the House of Lords, make a
determination as to how that might impact on our issue. But
what we are faced with is a situation that occurred here in
the United States. And if there is a basis for holding
someone accountable, whoever it might be, we would like to
proceed in every possible way to do that. But we need to look
at what the House of Lords has concluded, and then we have got
to pursue an investigation that is still ongoing.

QUESTION: Do you think -- this is probably
going to fall into the category of "what if," but -- the House
of Lords ruling, apparently they decided that, in Britain, he
would not be responsible for any acts that occurred prior to
Britain signing this treaty. Do you think that would hold
true in this country, as well?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: Those are the issues
that we are reviewing.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, can you give us any update
on your discussions with Judge Starr, at what point they are
now, or whether you seem to be leaning toward getting some
outside, respected authority to conduct the inquiry?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I cannot comment.

QUESTION: Can you comment at all on the Bakaly
matter, referred to you by Judge Starr?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: No.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, can you tell us about your
meeting this week with people who are concerned about police
conduct? Is there going to be any follow-on to that? What
will be the upshot of it?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We have heard from
civil rights leaders who are concerned, and we have shared our
concern with them. We are hearing from law enforcement
officials today, and discussing how we can address this
concern.

I think the clear issue is policing has been
of great benefit to this country, in terms of public safety,
and as we have developed community policing, police have, in
many instances, become the glue that brings a community
together, as opposed to splitting it apart. Good community
police officers have reached out to young people and, instead
of developing suspicion against police, have been responsible
for becoming their mentors, becoming people who give them
guidance and support in the community.

Community policing has been important in terms
of building trust with the community that produces information
that solves crimes. We have seen the results of this effort
in so many communities across America, where police and
schools and private citizens are working together to solve the
community's problems.

At the same time, there are a few police
officers who exercise their authority in a way that is not
justified by the law or by any other circumstance. And it is
important that we speak out and say that that cannot be
tolerated, that we must work together to perfect policing.
Because the police officer is the person that most personifies
government authority in the eyes of the individual person in
their daily life. And we must make that personification of
authority an image that is fair, that is firm, that is just,
that is understanding, and that is compassionate.

And we have a lot of good examples to draw
upon. But we have got to make clear that excessive force --
not justified by the law or the circumstances -- and abusive
authority will not be tolerated.

QUESTION: Will you be going to New York as
some of the leaders requested?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We are reviewing what
we should do, consistent with the ongoing investigation, to
speak out where appropriate, but to make sure that justice is
done in terms of the investigation and in terms of whatever
results are from the investigation.

QUESTION: And what is your hope that will come
out of these meetings today? What is the agenda?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I want to hear from the
people who have been so responsible for making law enforcement
so effective, from the point of view of building trust in the
community, of solving problems in the community -- not just
reducing crime, but solving community problems. Because I
think they have done so much to bring policing into the next
century, in terms of effectiveness and trust. And I want to
hear from them as to their suggestions about what we can do
to enhance that trust.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, can we categorize your
review in New York as a pattern and practice investigation of
the City Police Department?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: Well, you have got
different situations. You have a pending prosecution in the
Eastern District, on the Louima case. You have an
investigation to determine whether there was criminal
wrongdoing underway by the Bronx D.A., with the United States
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York --
that is, Manhattan -- working with them and pursuing that to
determine what should be done. And then you have the pattern
and practice investigation that had been originally originated
in the Eastern District.

The Southern District is now pursing the issue
of pattern and practice with respect to a widened authority.
And I would ask Myron to give you the full context of it.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, just a quick follow-up if
I may. Kwasi Mfume this week mentioned the concern about the
possibility of civil unrest. How concerned are you that
people in some of these communities are very, very concerned
about some of these allegations of wrongdoing?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I think it is very
important to make sure that we do everything we can to be
sensitive to this issue. But it is important to recognize
that civil unrest does not help the situation; that what we
must do is, in an orderly way, conduct the investigations so
that they are done the right way. We must figure out what we
can do to enhance good policing in this country that is so
vitally important in so many different ways.

And we must work together to make sure that we
know the best ways, and that we implement the best ways, for
uncovering any abuse of authority on the part of the limited
number of police officers involved in that type of activity;
and that we take appropriate steps when that abuse of
authority has been identified, to see that it is corrected and
that it is never done again.

QUESTION: Do you think Mayor Giuliani has
created more problems in terms of civil unrest by his
apparently intolerant comments about the Diallo matter.

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not make any
comment. I just think it is important that we look to see
what can be done to get the best possible policing in this
country, with the best possible policing being police officers
who work with the community to identify problems, to solve
those problems, and do it fairly, so that the public has
confidence in them.

QUESTION: But you always talk about how
important it is for the community to work together. This is
the political leader of the community who seems to be going
in a different direction.

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment on
the specifics. I think it is important for us to comment on
what has happened in this country in terms of good policing
and how important it is to ferret out those that violate that
spirit.

QUESTION: You talk about community policing
in kind of touchy-feely terms. But I think, in New York --
and they have bragged about this for the last couple of
years -- that the reason that they were able to get violent
crime down so significantly is that these strike forces would
go through neighborhoods and sort of shake people down for
guns, people with minor infractions were taken off the
streets -- it's a whole approach. And have you been looking
for the last couple of years at whether these strike forces
are too heavy handed and have resulted in incidents like the
latest shootings?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: As I indicated, we have
pattern and practice investigations underway now in New York.
So I really should not comment on any issue with respect to
that.

With respect to "touchy-feely," that is an
interesting expression that you all have coined. But what
good policing is, is not just touchy-feely, it is firm, fair
enforcement that fits the crime. It is rigorous
investigations, conducted according to principles of due
process, that do not single out any one group, and do not
profile a matter based on race, and do not stop young people
just because of race.

It is a process that people can have confidence
in. What we need to do is to identify those that abuse the
power that they have as police officers and take steps to see
that they don't do it again.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, is one of the options you
are looking at in this pattern and practice investigations --
one of the options that you are looking at to play observers?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: It will depend on what
we find. And it would be inappropriate to comment at this
early point.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, over the last several
years there have been -- and I gather there was again this
week from the folks in that review -- periodic calls for some
kind of national commission to look at police conduct in
America. We heard this after Waco. We heard this after Ruby
Ridge. We heard this after some of the concerns that the
National Rifle Association raised about the ATF. Various
groups from all different spectrums have suggested this. And
that is on the table again.

What do you think would be accomplished, if
anything, by such a commission?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I think what is
important now is it is important for us to hear from people
who have ideas and understand what can be done to build the
trust, to identify the wrongdoers, and to get them out of
policing if we cannot otherwise correct the situation.

What we need to do is to go forward and get
some of these ideas implemented, share best practices with
police agencies across the country as to how you enforce the
law, but do it so that the public can have confidence. I
think what it goes to is just what I was mentioning earlier --
that police represent the authority of government, a
government who can tell its citizens what to do on certain
occasions, more than any other group of people.

I mean the position of a police officer is
extraordinarily important, because it represents the best and,
in very limited circumstances, the worst. And we need to hear
from people as to what is working in communities to promote
the best.

There are a number of issues. How do we
develop best practices to avoid people believing that they are
being stopped just because of race? How do we create the best
practices across this Nation to make sure that young people
don't feel embittered because they feel like they were stopped
just because they were young and black? How do we make sure
that police officers are trained as best as they possibly can
be trained and when to shoot and don't shoot?

Let me give you an example. I do not know how
many around this table have participated in one of these
simulators, but, with modern technology, you can now, with a
laser gun, have scenes put up on a screen that are real-life
scenes that a police officer faces -- somebody coming around
a corner in a dark alley; is he friend? Is he foe? Is he
going to shoot you? Is he not? Or is he going to shoot the
person that he is with?

When to shoot and when not to shoot is one of
the most difficult decisions in some circumstances that
anybody could make. And I suspect if you all went around the
table and did a series of five shoot/don't shoot situations,
you would probably be killed three times. You would kill the
wrong person twice and you would understand better than ever
before how difficult these decisions are.

But it is imperative that we make sure our
police officers have the training and the support they need
to make these difficult decisions.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, back to the situation in
New York, Mayor Giuliani is thinking about running for the
Senate, as is Hillary Clinton. Is that going to complicate
it, the Clinton Justice Department looking at the New York
Police Department?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: We are going to do
everything that we undertake in this investigation based on
the evidence and the law and the desire to make sure that we
take appropriate action against wrongdoers -- firm, vigorous
action -- that reflects our feelings that this conduct should
absolutely not be tolerated. But, at the same time,
recognizing good policing and promoting it in every way we
can.

QUESTION: Mr. Giuliani's spokeswoman said that
the only reason you put out the statement last week was
because the State Attorney General had announced their own
investigation. What was the motivation of why you put out the
statement?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I do not know when the
Attorney General announced his. I do not do things based on
what others do, because I do not usually know that they're
doing it.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, to backtrack, what do you
expect the Mayor's office in New York City to cooperate with
the Justice investigation?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would hope that
everybody could cooperate. Because what we are about here is
building confidence. And the best way to build confidence is
for people to talk out the issues and get them resolved. And,
in connection with the criminal investigations, we will pursue
those the right way.

QUESTION: Given the current climate there, how
serious would you say the threat to public confidence in
policing is there in New York?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment on
the specific cases that we are investigating.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, may I engage in a bit of
special pleading here?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: You are always so
effective.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: In the last couple of weeks, for no
reasons other than just the chance to talk with people in law
enforcement, investigators in several Federal agencies -- some
of which are Justice Department, some of which are Treasury,
but all of which -- all of those cases are prosecuted by U.S.
Attorneys -- they have said that they are being advised by
U.S. Attorneys around the country that when they have big
cases and big arrests, that they should limit more the amount
of information that they publicly reveal about the nature of
the crimes involved.

To give you a very simple example, drug agents
and ATF agents have said they are being told that when they
seize large amounts of illegal weapons or large amounts of
illegal drugs that they should not follow the past practice
of showing all the stuff that they have seized, but rather
just show a small amount, a small sample. Is there some
concern in the Department that in that past practice of
showing all the stuff that is seized in a big case has
hampered prosecution or led to acquittals when convictions
were within reach?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I'm not aware of such
advice. But, may I do this in response to your pleading, and
rule that we will defer this, and I will appoint a special
master --

(Laughter.)

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: -- Myron Marlin, to
give you the best information that we can.

In a separate context that has nothing to do
with your question, because I really do not know of any -- I
do not know the cases of which you speak, so we need to pursue
that and understand that -- I want to make very sure that when
we make arrests, because I've seen it before, people say, here
we have all these drugs, we seized this, we seized that, what
I'm more interested in is are what are we doing to make sure
that we have put a drug organization out of business so that
it does not spring up again. What are we doing to get the
major people in the organization arrested, and not just the
subordinates?

That is what I am interested in. And we can
comment only in a limited way with respect to those issues,
but I just want to make sure that we are as straightforward
with the American people as we can be.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, with respect to what
Mr. Williams said, I have heard similar information.

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would refer you to
Special Master Marlin.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, on the Campaign Finance
Task Force, there has been no announcement or word of
indictment for months now. Some are saying that their work
has ground to a standstill, that the statute of limitations
has expired in some cases. What is the exact status of the
task force at this point? Have any avenues of the
investigation been specifically closed?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: None have been
specifically closed to my knowledge. We are trying to pursue
every lead. You all get spoiled sometimes because there is
one indictment after another, and then you think that that's
what happens in every investigation. Think back to some of
these investigations that take a long period of time, build
on information developed from early arrests in the case. And,
other than that, I cannot comment other than to say we are
going to pursue every lead that we can as vigorously as
possible.

QUESTION: But has the statute of limitations
expired specifically in the case of John Huang?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment
with respect to any matter that is pending.

QUESTION: While we are talking about pending
investigations, is the Dan Burton investigation still going
on?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment.

QUESTION: How about the Haley Barbour
investigation?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment.

QUESTION: Ms. Reno, people are starting to
focus on their political futures. Do you have any interest
in running for office again?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I made a judgment that
I would try, for whatever time I have here, to be the best
Attorney General possible, and then I would go off and get in
my truck and explore the country.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Is Donna Shalala still going with
you?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I do not know.

QUESTION: In your recent visits to Colombia,
you expressed interest in getting some of the drug dealers
from Colombia extradited to the U.S. I wonder if you could
tell me if there has been any progress in those requests for
extradition so far?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I could not comment
concerning the Colombia proceedings, but we are very
encouraged by events to date.

QUESTION: But at the moment they are in the
Colombian Government's hands. I mean you have already
requested their extradition and now you are waiting for the
Colombian Government to respond.

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: It is now pending in
Colombia.

QUESTION: Can I ask you one more question?
Regarding the three Americans that were killed in Colombia,
the three missionaries, I wonder if you would like to see
those responsible added to the list of people that you are
requesting for extradition?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would not comment at
this point, because it would be premature.

QUESTION: What would you like Justice to do
with regard to those responsible?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: I would like, with all
my heart and soul, to see that whomever is responsible for
that is brought to justice.

QUESTION: Here?

ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: It will depend on the
circumstances as to what is most appropriate. I just want to
see that whoever did that terrible crime -- three
missionaries -- they should be brought to justice.